Hockey: Winnacunnet finishes season with 2-15-1 record

Tuesday

Feb 28, 2012 at 2:00 AM

EXETER — It was hard to overlook the symbolism. The Winnacunnet High School hockey team had barely left the ice after Saturday's 4-2 loss to Oyster River when the power went out at The Rinks at Exeter.

STEVE CRAIG

EXETER — It was hard to overlook the symbolism. The Winnacunnet High School hockey team had barely left the ice after Saturday's 4-2 loss to Oyster River when the power went out at The Rinks at Exeter.

A final tough loss in the book, the lights were turned out on the Warriors, who finished with a 2-15-1 record.

In this game Winnacunnet built a 2-0 lead with goals by seniors Brandon Ciaramitaro and Pat Mills only to have Oyster River rip off three straight goals in 3:13.

It was a familiar scenario this season for the Warriors.

"There was always just like a period where we just fell apart. It was discipline," Ciaramitaro said.

It was the final high school hockey game for Ciaramitaro, Mills, forward Joe Pappalardo and defenseman and captain Joe Lefebvre. Mills said he intends to try to keep playing hockey. For the other three seniors, they knew this was it for competitive hockey.

"It's definitely tough your last season when you don't get those bounces to go your way," Ciaramitaro said.

Lefebvre added, "it's tough when you work hard all year and it doesn't really pay off."

The 2011-12 season was a struggle for the Warriors. The season started with four key players suspended and consecutive 6-0 losses followed. After a winless holiday tournament, the suspended players returned and Winnacunnet appeared to be moving in the right direction, going 1-1-1 in its next three games and outscoring the opposition, 8-7. Six straight losses followed. A 5-4 last-second win against Timbelane was a welcome respite but four straight losses by a combined 26-3 margin led into the season finale.

"The kids battled," Winnacunnet coach John Normand said. "There was really only one game all year where I felt they did not play well."

For the season, Winnacunnet was outscored 92-26. Its lack of firepower was exaggerated by often spotty goaltending and the type of defensive lapses that led directly to two of Oyster River's first three goals on Saturday.

On the other hand, the Warriors were still playing hard at the end of the game and refrained from taking any stupid, unnecessary penalties that are often the hallmark of a frustrated team.

"We figured it was our last game. Why not put it all our there," Ciaramitaro said.

In other words, Winnacunnet closed its season playing hockey, not running amok.

"I've got to absolutely tip my hat to John Normand and the Winnacunnet kids," OR head coach Griffin Richard said. "They had absolutely nothing to play for and they gave us one hell of a battle. Part of it is them keeping the game close and part of it is Johnny having a really good handle."

Winnacunnet is expected to return top scoring threat Ryan Sullivan (two assists on Saturday), its entire second line of sophomores Charlie Hesser, Mike Millerick and Brendan McGirl, several other forwards who saw third-line time and three of its top four defensemen in freshman Liam O'Sullivan, sophomore Chris Silver and junior Garrett Holt. Both Silver and Holt were hurt for good chunks of this season due to injuries. Holt came back from a broken leg suffered in football but did not play Saturday due to a shoulder injury.

Also returning will be the trio of goalies, freshman Kyle Farmer, sophomore Austin Wildes (32 saves on Saturday) and junior Matt Ikawa.

The seniors hope they have taught the younger players "a good example of how to work hard and keep pushing until the end," Ciaramitaro said.

Learning to win close games will be their responsibility.

"It's looking good for next year but that game experience just wasn't there," Lefebvre said. "It's tough because these kids just don't know how to play at this pace for a whole game."

"It's a pretty good senior group. They all worked hard," Normand said. "And Pat really came along after he saw the light and took a little more of a leadership role as we expected him to. And (Ciaramitaro) worked his bottom off all year long, just a real committed, hard-working kid. You just feel bad for somebody like him and Joe Lefebvre who worked hard, showed up all the time. And Joe Papp, he had his moments. He's had a few good games for us, had some injuries. Overall, it's a good senior class and I hate to see them go out the way we did. Hopefully they've learned from the whole experience and can find the silver lining that from hard work, no matter what the outcome is, you can walk out of here with your head held high. And I think that's the mesage all of those guys can take home."

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